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December 15, 2014, 3:25 PM

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Gurdeep Pall / Skype Blogs:

Skype Translator preview goes live on Windows 8.1 with support for real-time translation of English and Spanish — Skype Translator Preview - An Exciting Journey to a New Chapter in Communication — For more than a decade, Skype has been breaking down geographical barriers to make every day audio and video communications possible.

More: Skype Blogs, TechCrunch, GeekWire, PC World, PC Magazine, Gigaom, CNET, SuperSite for Windows, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Engadget, Cult of Mac, ZDNet, dailywireless.org, BetaNews, gHacks Technology News, Mashable, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Neowin, The Tech Portal, Windows Phone Central and The Fire Hose

Tweets: @scottlowe, @stevenguggs, @mhoye, @whatthebit, @z_rose and @sissi_kaizerin

Thanks:@reckel

The Foursquare Blog:

Foursquare launches on iPad with emphasis on trip planning — Introducing Foursquare for the iPad, the best way to plan your holiday travels. — Since the new Foursquare came out a few months ago, people have been telling us that they do a lot of their planning on their iPad …

More: 9to5Mac, The Verge, VentureBeat, The Next Web, iMore, SlashGear and WebProNews

Tweets: @dens and @theromit

Kia Kokalitcheva / VentureBeat:

You can now control your Nest thermostat with the Google app on iOS and Android — The “Works with Nest” program has a new addition: the Google app. — Starting now, Nest thermostat owners can use Google's self-titled iOS or Android apps to control their home's temperature, much like they do with Nest's own app.

More: 9to5Mac, Android Police, BGR, MacRumors, SlashGear and O'Grady's PowerPage

Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune:

SurveyMonkey is worth $2 billion after new $250 million fundraising round — SurveyMonkey, the online survey platform, raised $250 million in equity financing, making the company worth close to $2 billion. — The funding will help the company pursue future acquisition purchases …

More: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, bizjournals and PE Hub Blog

Brian Ries / Mashable:

Uber introduces surge pricing during Sydney hostage siege, then backtracks, offers free rides, refunds — Uber intros surge pricing during Sydney hostage siege, then backtracks after user outcry — This post was updated at 10:45 p.m. ET to include an updated statement from Uber

More: Uber Blog, BBC, TIME, CNET, Guardian, Washington Post, SiliconBeat, The Verge, TechCrunch, Gawker, USA Today, Sydney Morning Herald, NPR, New York Times, TechPresident, ABC, Wired, bizjournals, Tech Times, VatorNews, The Daily Dot, The Next Web, NEWS.com.au, Joho the Blog, SiliconANGLE, Ars Technica and New York Magazine

Tweets: @lauradinneen, @laurenonizzle and @rmac18

Alex Heath / Cult of Mac:

Workflow lets you easily chain together and automate hundreds of actions across iOS apps — Workflow pushes the limits of how powerful iOS can be — A new app called Workflow aims to close the divide between the power of OS X and the convenience of iOS.

More: MacStories, TechCrunch, The Verge, AppleInsider, MacStories, Seth Clifford, TodaysiPhone.com, SlashGear, MacRumors, The Next Web, iMore, TUAW, Business Insider, The Mac Observer, 9to5Mac, BGR and App Advice

Tweets: @arix, @benbajarin, @viticci, @charlesarthur, @producthunt and @jasonfried

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Pirate Bay admin talks about the raid, copycats, says he's not sure site will be relaunched — Pirate Bay Responds to The Raid, Copies and The Future — For more than a decade The Pirate Bay's been the bastion of uncensored information. Until the raid on some of its critical infrastructure last week …

More: Gizmodo, The Next Web, BGR, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, The Age, ExtremeTech, Business Insider and The Hill

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Sony hackers offer to withhold posting emails from specific employees if they write in and ask — Sony Hackers Offer to Withhold Stolen Data From Promised Leak — A group claiming responsibility for the devastating hacking attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment on Sunday offered …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Gartner: 301M Smartphones Sold In Q3 As Xiaomi Muscles Into The Top 5 At Samsung's Expense — Smartphones now account for 66% of all mobile phones worldwide and are on track to see 2014 sales of 1.2 billion units in 2014. But while Android appears to have “won” the so-called platform war …

More: Gartner, New York Times, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, CNET, Computerworld, SlashGear, App Advice, RCR Wireless News, The Tech Portal and Inquirer. Tweets: @jafurtado

Lara O'Reilly / Business Insider:

Facebook now has an empathy team, calls users “people” to consider them in more human way — Facebook: We Don't Call Them ‘Users’ Any More, We Call Them ‘People’ — Facebook has overhauled the way it talks about its userbase and advertising customers in order to consider them in a more “human” way.

More: GeekWire and SiliconANGLE. Tweets: @cgerrish, @jayrosen_nyu and @beastoftraal

Napier Lopez / The Next Web:

SoundCloud introduces ‘Collection,’ a dashboard for following artists and listening to your playlists — SoundCloud is great for discovering unique content and mixes you'll scarcely find anywhere else, but sometimes keeping track of all that audio goodness gets a bit cumbersome.

More: SoundCloud, The Verge, Engadget, VentureVillage, TechCrunch and SlashGear

Matthew Bennett / The Spain Report:

Spanish Newspaper Publishers' Association Now Asks Government To Help Stop Google News Closure — NEWS: AEDE announces it wants the Spanish government and EU competition authorities to stop Google closing Google News: “to protect the rights of citizens and businesses”.

Chine Labbe / Reuters:

France says UberPop to be banned as irate taxi drivers stall traffic — (Reuters) - The UberPop transport service will be banned in France from Jan. 1 to avoid unfair competition, the interior ministry said on Monday as taxi drivers impeded morning traffic into Paris in a one-day protest against the U.S.-based online cab-hailing firm.

More: New York Times, Telegraph, BBC, Techvibes Global News, Bloomberg, Fortune, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, VentureBeat, Globe and Mail, SiliconANGLE and The Next Web

Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Google:

T-Mobile teases a new uncarrier deal livestreaming tomorrow as it claims 50% faster LTE in NY — T-Mobile has announced that it will be unveiling its latest contract-free deal in a livestreamed ‘fireside chat’ tomorrow, Un-carrier 8.0. … The company hasn't hinted at any of the details, but we'll of course let you know ...

More: T-Mobile Newsroom, T-Mobile Newsroom, iMore, The Verge, Android Authority, Gotta Be Mobile, BGR, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, IntoMobile, iMore and TmoNews

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Amazon's Kindle for iOS app updated w/ Goodreads integration, Audible progressive play, more — Amazon pushed out an updated version of its Kindle for iOS app today bringing a list of new features to the reading app. — Kindle for iOS now includes integration with Goodreads …

More: VentureBeat, The Digital Reader, Engadget, TechCrunch, iMore, MacNN and Ubergizmo

Dina Bass / Businessweek:

Microsoft's Azure Is Starting to Close the Gap With Amazon's Cloud Service — Last year software maker K2.com stopped relying on Amazon.com (AMZN) for its cloud services and turned to Microsoft (MSFT) instead. K2 Chief Executive Officer Adriaan van Wyk says he's happy with the choice—most of the time.

Gerry Shih / Reuters:

Xiaomi made $56 million profit in 2013: filing — (Reuters) - China's Xiaomi Technology Ltd Co [XTC.UL] made a profit of 347.48 million yuan ($56.15 million) on 26.58 billion yuan ($4.30 billion) in revenue in 2013, Chinese securities filings dated Monday show.

More: 9to5Google, Gigaom, BGR, TechSpot, Tech in Asia, Forbes, Patently Apple, SlashGear, The Register, MacDailyNews, AppleInsider, Android Central and The Tech Portal. Tweets: @zacharye

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